While hiking the trails and doing of trail adventuring we come across many different and interesting items of nature or mankind. There were people here long before Columbus visited the North American Continent. Evidence of their existence can be found along the many trails that we hike on. This forum will be a place to share your findings.

Just for the fun of it I'm keeping record of my posts from a treasure related site. Post seem to disappear now and then. So, if you wish you can follow as the story progresses.

Orville and Fern Lowery Cave

Post Number:#1 Postby zelph » Thu Jan 16, 2014 4:31 pmIn spring of 1925, a local resident, Orville and Fern Lowery, of Hickory Hill, in the southeast corner of Marion County Illinois, was busy with his two daughters removing rocks and debris from an area designated to be the family garden. His eldest daughter, Fern, who was six years old, began to explore along the ledge of the ravine next to the garden spot. Several feet away from the bluff, Fern discovered a hole cut through the sandstone by human hands. She called her father over to investigate the hole which he determined was of ancient origin.

Orville worked diligently for years attempting to get professional investigators from the state of Illinois out to the site to examine this entrance into the subterranean cavity. Orville was met with futility as the Illinois experts sloughed off the idea that anything of ancient significance could possibly exist in the most remote regions of Marion County. However, Orville was able to get Fern's discovery recorded in the WPA journals in Salem, the county seat. Frustrated for lack of interest, Orville later sold his property and moved to Mt. Vernon about 20 miles away in the early 1930's, taking with him his two charming girls. Fern and her sister grew up in Mt. Vernon, got married and moved to different states forsaking all prior knowledge of their family discovery. Orville, likewise ceased to pursue attempting to arouse the bitter scholars who had neglected him so many times.

When I get time I'll post some information on the location of this cave. I'll try to make one posting per day.

Please don't post comments until I'm finished with my research and postings :~d

All was quiet for decades, until one balmy day in early summer of 1961 when Michael Paul Henson, the most famous treasure guide writer in the country, approached Orville after reading about the discovery in the Salem courthouse. Excited at the renewed interest, Orville met with Henson and escorted him to the site of the ancient portal.

Henson, the respected writer of lost treasure books, published the information he had obtained in subsequent releases. Others who often copied Henson's work also duplicated this twisted tale of discovery long after the death of Orville in 1974.

It's interesting that the most famous treasure guide writer in the country was not able to help Orville get somebody to start excavations on the site.

Notice what was said "duplicated this twisted tale of discovery" That statement made me start thinking about how much of what is said about treasure hunting and cave hunting.

I was curious about what Fern Lowery had found so I started doing a little research on the Lowery family, beginning with the death of Orville and working my way back in time. My goal was to find out where exactly he was living when Fern found the entrance. Fern said it was a hole in the ground. She did not say it was covered with anything. For safety reasons I would think her father would have covered it with a steel something or other to prevent falling into it or maybe a fence around it etc.

Later in time a twisted story surfaces that indicates the hole was covered with a large domed rock which was to pivot when someone stepped on it. The hole size was such that a man could suspend himself by his armpits to prevent from falling all the way in so the story goes.

Back to doing some research. The first thing to do was check to see if Orville lived in Mt.Vernon about 20 miles from his original home site. I proceeded to search online the 1940 population census for Mt. Vernon. I had success. Orville, his wife, one daughter and one roomer were on the census. On the census it also gave the his location for the 1930 census as being "rural". Oh boy....looking good. When I saw "rural" my heart skipped a beat So If I went to the 1930 census records I could find the location/residence where he and fern found the "cave" entrance.

There is a wealth of information online to do armchair research.

In my research I also found this:

Newspaper Clippings on 31 December 1973

W. Orville Lowery Mt. Vernon William Orville Lowery, 79, of 105 S. 17th St., was stricken as he boarded a Greyhound tais in St. .Louis last night. Mr. Lowery and his wife had been returning to Mt. Vernon after a holiday trip to Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Lowery was rushed to St. Louis City Hospital, where he died. Mr. Lowery was a retired employe at Vernois, Inc. He and his wife, Dolly, had been intending to return to Mt. Vernon by air, but the blizzard in St. Louis forced the cancellation of Ozark flights to Mt. Vernon, so they elected to take the bus. It was as he boarded the bus in St. Louis that Mr. Lowery was stricken. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Myers Funeral Service.=

An online conversation taking place between 2 guys on a Family History Search site. It starts out with the death of “Fern” Lowery, Orville’s daughter Take notice of her maiden names. Keep in mind now of what I found in the 1940 census about the “roomer” residing with Orville.

Fern was born Sept. 24, 1919, in Marion County, Ill. She was a licensed vocational nurse and a bookeeper. Fern graduated from Draughn Business College and All Saints School of Nursing. She was a 55-plus-year member of Eastern Star and the Porcelain Art Club. Fern was also a member of St. Luke's United Methodist Church and the New Faith Sunday school class.

Fern was credited with an archeological find in 1925 in Marion County.

I wonder where that farm was located (I heard it used to be on ? Road) and whatever became of the lid mentioned below? Any local historians know? Anyone know anything about the below story that they'd be willing to share?

In spring of 1925, a local resident, Orville Lowery, of Hickory Hill, in the southeast corner of Marion County Illinois, was busy with his two daughters removing rocks and debris from an area designated to be the family garden. His eldest daughter, Fern, who was six years old, began to explore along the ledge of the ravine next to the garden spot. Several feet away from the bluff, Fern discovered a hole cut through the sandstone by human hands. She called her father over to investigate the hole which he determined was of ancient origin. Blah, blah blah..long story )) and then again it goes on to say::

That entry reads:

"About 10 miles east of ? on Orville Lowery's farm, a large rock bluff runs in a north-south direction. About 1925, Orville found a hole in the solid rock of this bluff. A rock lid carved exactly to fit the hole left only a faint line to show where it was. Orville removed the lid and discovered an empty cavity. There are numerous carvings below the hole that are believed to be Indian or Spanish. No other cavities have been found, but anyone deciphering these symbols or using a metal detector along the face of this bluff might come upon something exciting there. Lowery firmly believed that the cavity had been filled with gold nuggets because he saw traces of gold on the side of the hole."

(Zelph thinks the last paragraph was originally written by Henson, the respected writer of lost treasure books )

Conversation continues:

This reminds me of another story of a cave in that same neighborhoodthat is supposed to have "Egyptian Artifacts" in it.

I did have the story of this cave bookmarked. Can some one give methe name of it??

ThanksRay

Yes, it's the same cave, supposedly rediscovered by a Russ Burrows (formerlyof Olney, Il, now living in Greely, Colorado., who allegedly looted the caveof it's artifacts and milllions in gold or allegedly faked the artifacts).He wrote several books on it. Now called "Burrows Cave".

Actually, Lowery discovered a cavity or pit with nothing in it, though therock lid over the opening had some ancient writing on it. Burrows discovereda cave/tomb, possibly breaking through the cavity or finding a completelydifferent opening on the same property. Some neighbors in the vicinity ofthe farm have large private collections of artifacts, some similar to whatwas taken from the cave.

Andy

Andy

Thanks for getting the story straight. I found the Burrows cavething but that "discovery" was in the 1980's. I have heardthose stories since I was a kid. Long before the 80's

The Lowery TreasureConspiracies, Hoaxes and … Alexander the Great?Written by Becky Michael Zeissler

There is a legend in Marion County, Illinois of a treasure discovered in 1925 by a farmer named Orville Lowery and his two daughters, Velma and Fern. Like all good legends, this one is rooted in a mixture of hard, solid facts and an obliterating vapor of speculation, fantasy and myth. I will attempt to outline this story in a comprehensible manner, although flights of fancy will waft it from us shortly after the known facts are stated. In the interest of full disclosure, I discovered, during my research, that the matron of the family, Dollie Lowery, was a sister to my great-grandfather, Albert W.

Russell. I attempted to contact several direct descendants of the Lowery family, but as of this printing have not been able to interview them.

I did talk to other family members who knew and visited the Lowerys— including one cousin who lived with them temporarily—and none of these folks were even aware of Uncle Orville’s discovery, if, in fact, he had indeed discovered anything.

The first recorded instance of the Lowery connection to a discovery of any kind that I can find is in a 1977 treasure guide written by Michael Paul Henson. There is a brief paragraph pertaining to the find: “About ten miles east of Kells [sic] on Orville Lowery’s farm, a large rock bluff runs in a north-south direction. About 1925, Orville found a hole in the solid rock of this bluff. A rock lid carved exactly to fit the hole left only a faint line to show where it was. Orville removed the lid and discovered an empty cavity. There are numerous carvings below the hole that are believed to be Indian or Spanish. No other cavities have been found, but anyone deciphering these symbols or using a metal detector along the face of this bluff might come upon something exciting there. Lowery firmly believed that the cavity had been filled with gold nuggets because he saw traces of gold on the sides of the hole.”[13] the Lowery family, per the 1920 (and 1930) census, lived in the south half of Romine Township in Marion County, Illinois. Orville Lowery was a farmer, a “cropper” on a rented farm, and he was married to Dollie Russell November 27, 1916[1]. These two, in 1925, were aged 30 and 27 respectively. Orville and Dollie had two daughters, namely Velma, aged 7, and Fern, aged 5 and 3 months.

William Orville Lowery was born December 23, 1896[2] to Silas and Eva (Cook) Lowery, and he died in St. Louis on December 29, 1973, when he “was stricken as he boarded a bus for Mt. Vernon.”[5] Dollie Margaret Elvira Russell was born May 13, 1897[2] to William W. and Mary Alice (Sprouse) Russell in Romine Township, Marion County, Illinois.[3] Dollie died July 10, 1984 in Fort Worth, Texas.[4] Velma would grow up to marry Harold Holabeck, and live in Des Plaines, Illinois.

They were married for more than 50 years, and had three sons: Larry, Rodney and Roger, plus three grandsons at the time of her death. Born October 12, 1917, she died on May 12, 1998. Mrs. Holabeck is buried in Mt. Vernon, Illinois.

Fern also married. Her first marriage was to William D. Pace, Jr., and later to John Chuculate. She had two daughters, Mary Louise and Carolyn Sue Pace. Bill Pace died sometime prior to May 28, 1965.[10] Fern eventuallywas grandmother to four grandchildren, namely Donnie and Kelley Stewart, plus Kimberly Kay and Jeffrey Hodge.[11] Source: Bracy Food Store ad, MT. VERNON REGISTER NEWS, March 29, 1965 he Lowery family’s whereabouts from the 1940s through the 1970s can be easily ascertained due to frequent appearances in society columns of the MT. VERNON REGISTER NEWS during that time period.

The usual notices are printed, including graduations, weddings, funerals, holiday visits and illnesses, but not once could I find even a hint of a story of lost treasure. That’s not to say that Orville Lowery didn’t have at least one brush with fortune, for he did win $250 from the Mt. Vernon Bracy Food Store at 15th and Broadway in Spring of 1965.

However, it seems improbable that Lowery would knowingly allow an erroneous misuse of his name in a “lost treasure cache” story, as witnessed by his request in the November 4, 1953 edition of the MT.

VERNON REGISTER NEWS to disassociate his name from that of a similarly named fellow who was a convicted felon.

Further, in talking with my father’s brother, their great-uncle Orville was a quiet, unassuming man, and no talk of gold-filled caves was ever heard from him at family gatherings. In fact, it was only while reading Fern’s obituary online that I first heard of the “Lowery Treasure.” There was one line at the bottom of the copy that simply stated:“Fern was credited with an archeological find in 1925 in Marion County.”[16] As it turned out, that line was not part of the original obituary, but was merely commentary supplied by someone known as “ABartelt” on ROOTSWEB.ANCESTRY.COM, who wished to elaborate on the old treasure story.

Fern was born Sept. 24, 1919, in Marion County, Illinois. She was a licensed vocational nurse and a bookkeeper. Fern graduated from [Draughon’s] Business College and All Saints School of Nursing.

She was a 55-plus-year member of Eastern Star and the Porcelain Art Club. Fern was also a member of St. Luke's United Methodist Church and the New Faith Sunday school class. Survivors: Daughters, Mary Steward and husband, Don, of Keller; Carolyn Hodge and husband, Spencer, of Fort Worth; grandchildren, Kimberly Hodge, Donald Steward and wife, Elsa; Jeff Hodge and wife, Valerie; Kellie Procter and husband, Pepper; and eight greatgrandchildren.

On the ROOTSWEB page, “ABartelt” tells a rather detailed version—in comparison with that of Henson’s 1977 treasure guide paragraph—of the alleged archaeological find. Unfortunately, we are not told the source of this richly-embroidered narrative:often copied Henson's work also duplicated this twisted tale of discovery long after the death of Orville in 1974.” At this point, “ABartelt’s” version of the story—although full of details and given to flourishes such as “charming girls” and “bitter scholars” which are not found in Henson’s brief description, at its heart—does not deviate substantially from that 1977 record, which the author repeats on his/her web page. In both accounts we find a cavity, made, or at least sealed, by human hands, and the site has an appearance of “ancient origin.” we also can still find the story to be quite plausible, even with minor factual differences pertaining to the age of the girls. In fact, Velma, not Fern, was the eldest daughter. In 1925, Velma would have been about seven years old and Fern would have been about five years old. But it’s no stretch of the imagination to think there could be a secret cache near a ravine in which gold might have been hidden, with a stone lid marked for the purpose of helping the original owner find his treasure at some future time. In fact, if we allow that there could have been a cache of gold, apparently the original owner did come back for it, as Lowery found merely traces of gold, but an otherwise empty cavity.

There is a tantalizing hint in the above narrative, where it is stated that the treasure writer Henson “approached Orville after reading about the discovery in the Salem courthouse.” I followed this hint, and learned that the record—if there was one—would most likely have been made by writers working on a WPA (Works Progress Administration) project called the “Federal Writers’ Project.” The program was part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and sought to put writers to work recording local histories, oral traditions, folklore and other narratives for every state in the union (which numbered 48 at the time), between 1936 and 1940.

Armed with this knowledge, I visited the Marion County courthouse and inquired of the records staff if I could see the original story as recorded by

Armed with this knowledge, I visited the Marion County courthouse and inquired of the records staff if I could see the original story as recorded by the WPA. One staff member was knowledgeable of the WPA project and said that she had looked all through the records in the courthouse herself, but had never found any of them. Even so, I was granted access to the record vault and searched through both the printed and the computerized index, but found no trace of Orville Lowery’s story. After exhausting that potential source, I turned to the internet and found that the Library of Congress hosts a searchable database containing “approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states.”[17] There are nearly 24,000 distinct documents, but despite extensive searching, there was not a mention of Orville Lowery’s story in any of them. Of course, there could indeed be a WPA record of Lowery’s find somewhere, but I could not locate it in the Marion County courthouse at Salem, Illinois, or in the records of the Library of Congress. I suspect that Michael Paul Henson learned of Lowery’s discovery through word-of-mouth, and sought him out for an interview. Of course, conspiracy theorists might indulge in the belief that the lack—or loss—of evidence is actually due to an elaborate cover-up.

Currently leading the pack of the Lowery Cave conspiracy theorists is a man by the name of Harry Hubbard, who hails from Olney, Illinois. Hubbard was interviewed on April 25, 2013, on Sweden’s “Red Ice Radio,” which, according to the host, Henrik Palmgren, covers investigations of “cover-ups, controversies and conspiracies.” Palmgren, in introducing Hubbard to his audience, proclaimed that Hubbard would comment “on the mainstream archaeological community and the suppression of America’s true history.” Hubbard believes that ancient peoples from the Mediterranean lived in North America long before Columbus discovered it, first basing this belief on books written in the 1800s that would, in his words, “postulate that the Carthaginians, that the Phoenicians, that the Romans, or some other Mediterranean tribes had been here.” He states in the radio interview that “later in life, I was to learn that they all were here: the Celts, the Vikings, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Phoenicians.”[18] Hubbard is also boldly vocal on his belief that the cave holds artifacts and the bodily remains of both Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.“… that this cave in Marion County, Illinois, holds the entire crypt of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, including the cadaver of King Alexander the Great, and “Queen of Queens,” Cleopatra.[14] o, how did we transition from a simple hole in the ground in 1977 to the improbable tomb of ancient Egyptians? Here is Hubbard’s account of the Lowery find, from transcribed excerpts of the “Red Ice Radio” broadcast last April: Hubbard: [In] 1925, there was a man, who, um, lived in Hickory Hill, Illinois, … and he is out on a piece of property with his two daughters …. And he’s got his old pickup truck there, and they are picking up, um, stones to make a garden.

… Well, I found out later, the stones they were picking up were actually axe heads, arrow heads, spear heads, just by the bucket…by the truckload. And he would take them and dump them. And, he was out with his two daughters, and his 6- year-old daughter named Fern, um, his name was Orville Lowery, Fern Lowery, uh, found a hole on the side of a bluff— there are ravines here, the strata has, um, surfacing sandstone, and the water force, over periods of time has cut these rather large ravines, they’re, oh, 15 to 20 feet deep and 70 to 100 feet wide—and she had found a hole, and her father came over—Orville came over—and he saw some markings, and he saw different things there and he’s like “Wow! This is something really nice.” So he tried to get the, um, scholars, the archaeologists and scholars, involved and interested in it, from the local universities, from Carbondale and Champaign-Urbana.

And they didn’t want to hear of it, because they told him that they didn’t have any record of anything there….

Palmgren: Yeah, nice.

Hubbard: And, so, Orville was just, um, perturbed that no one was interested in it, but then, in the 1930s, the late 1930s, one of the, part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal was um, a program called “Wapa,” um, “Work Project Assistance” or something like that, and they would hire one person in a township to record local history.

And so, uh, Orville got his story into some type of “Wapa” papers, but it was actually entered in the courthouse. Well, uh, there was, what…35 years later, um, in 1961, one of the…America’s premier treasure-book writers, named Michael Paul Henson, was…he went from town to town researching ghost towns and … he knew how to go to these courthouses and to these little county seats and look up the records and find ghost towns, or where places used to be with activity and such and he discovered Orville Lowery’s story. At that time, Orville Lowery lived in a village south of us called Mt.

Vernon. Actually, Mt. Vernon—all of these towns around here are called “Mount”… Mt. Vernon, Mt. Erie, they’re all built on ancient mounds. And Mt. Vernon, actually, is called the “King City” because that’s where a king was on the ancient mound when the white people came. So, um, so he found, he got out with Orville Lowery and Orville Lowery actually took him to the site. And Orville was so excited he called his daughter and said “Wow! You know this uh, this guy’s actually interested … 35 years down the road!” So, uh, so Orville was very happy to get his story into the, um, into a treasure book. And then, subsequently, it was recorded in other treasure books.” Hubbard’s story continues from this point when, in April of 1982, a man by the name of Russell Burrows, from Olney, Illinois, read about the site from the aforementioned treasure books.

Hubbard: [Burrows was] “pulling out artifacts by the hundreds…by the thousands…just amazing artifacts. They all had inscriptions [sic] on them, or many, many of them had archaic writing on them. And the scholars called it all a hoax because number one, he wouldn’t take them to the site, he wouldn’t tell them where it was at, and they couldn’t decipher the script. And come to find out many of the scholars who were attempting to decipher the script they were trying to read it backwards. Um, there was a mindset here with our academia, that all things are written from left to right, so that’s how they would find to write…read it, and it was written from right to left mostly, and it’s also written back and forth but [illegible] it’s written up and down, um, one tablet will be up from the bottom then you flip it over then it’s writ up from the bottom … from the other side…” Palmgren: [chuckle] Burrows supposedly found gold, bodies, statues and inscribed stones in the cave, while looking for an Aztec site. The OLNEY DAILY MAIL of July 27, 1984 ran a story in which Burrows was quoted: “ ‘The artifacts may be as old as 726 B.C. to 10,000 B.C.,’ said Russell Burrows, Olney, who discovered the site approximately 18 months ago while looking for an Aztec site purported to be in this area.

“The pieces, which have been scrutinized by an anthropologist from a major western university, as well as the site are not ready for public perusal as yet,” Burrows said.

“He continued that the university will probably begin the dig next year. At that time, more information can be given.

“Until then,’ he said, ‘the site must be protected from mercenary scavengers, those who would strip the site of these priceless artifacts. I want them preserved for history, since their creators definitely were here far before the peoples that we usually associate with prehistoric American history.” [6] Supposedly, after having been hounded by cave enthusiasts, treasure-seekers and others who wanted to prove their pet theories of extraterrestrials, ancient Egyptians and other fringe notions, Russell Burrows’ personal disillusionment led him to dynamite the entrance to the cave in 1989. This was three years before he co-wrote a book with Fred Rydhold titled THE MYSTERY CAVE OF MANY FACES, which was published in 1992.

In 1999, Wayne May, the editor of a magazine called THE ANCIENT AMERICAN, supposedly persuaded Burrows to show him the cave.

However, the reported 1989 blast had not only (conveniently?) destroyed the entrance, but collapsed some tunnels and apparently “diverted the flow of an underground river [which resulted in causing] water to gush into the underground complex.”[7] The story further unravels into weird and fantastic claims that Burrows intentionally led May to a different cave that he had stumbled upon, rather than show him the Lowery find. A neo-Nazi gets involved, and extraterrestrials make an appearance. Of course, none of these seems farfetched if you’re willing to accept Hubbard’s theory that within this cave, in America’s heartland, lie the bodies of Alexander the Great and Cleopatra.

Sadly, this information comes from dubious authors who call themselves things like “White Trash Peg,”[12] so veracity of claims can’t be validated.

So did Uncle Orville find a lost treasure? I suspect he found just exactly what was claimed in the 1977 Henson report: an old hole in the ground with markings made by someone who will forever remain a mystery. As to ancient Kings’ remains and hordes of gold? Just call me the “Queen of Denial.”

This video shows where the old school was. It's between the road and the homestead of W. Russell, father-in-law of Orville Lowery. Orville lived with his father-in-law in 1925 when the hole in the wall was found as reported by Henson.

You can see how the compacted soil does not allow vegetation to grow. At min. 37 you can see the road bed that leads in the direction of the Russel homestead.

this video shows the area around the location of W. Russell's homestead.

At the very beginning we are facing east, land slopes gently downward. The overgrown road is on the right. Most of the time it's necessary to walk along the cornfield being on private property.

at min. 0.08 we are looking North along the edge of Russell's property, lands slopes gently upward. The land he farmed is the cornfield on the right. the wood he used as fuel for his home was gotten from the woodland on the left and also to the south.

at min. 0.25 we face West and the land slopes gently downward.

We can safely say that the property is on a "Ridge" not a bluff that aligns in a North/South direction. There are No bluffs are in the vicinity of his homestead.